MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake to Begin Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Quest April 28 at Seattle Sounders FC

Published on March 9, 2009 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


SANDY, UTAH (Monday, March 9, 2009) - Real Salt Lake today announced that Utah's Major League Soccer side will begin its journey towards qualification for the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday, April 28, with an MLS qualifying round contest at Seattle Sounders FC. Kick-off between the new MLS Western Conference rivals is set for 8:00 p.m. MT (7:00 p.m. local) at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, WA. The USOC match will come one month to the day after Real Salt Lake opens up its 2009 MLS regular season campaign in the Pacific Northwest on March 28 against Sounders FC at Qwest Field.

Tickets for the limited-capacity USOC match at Starfire Sports Complex will become available to the general public on Monday, March 30, beginning at 11:00 a.m. MT. All tickets are general admission and priced at $15. Those interested in receiving more information on tickets can visit www.SoundersFC.com for public on-sale details in the upcoming weeks.

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, which is recognized as U.S. Soccer's National Championship, is an annual, single-elimination competition open to all amateur and professional soccer teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer. The tournament has crowned a champion for 95 consecutive years dating back to 1914.

Real Salt Lake is one of eight MLS teams vying for a pair of "Play-In" spots included among the League's eight Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup participants, with the top six-point producers from the 2008 MLS season (Columbus, Chicago, Kansas City, New England, Chivas USA and Houston) earning automatic entry into the 2009 tournament proper. The victor of the RSL-Seattle showdown will play the winner of the Colorado Rapids-Los Angeles Galaxy contest (Tuesday, April 7) in a second-round qualification match (date TBD) for the opportunity to reach the USOC Round of 16. The other MLS Play-In bracket features the New York Red Bulls at San Jose Earthquakes (Wednesday, April 29) and FC Dallas at D.C. United (Wednesday, April 22).

Real Salt Lake won a "Play-In" round contest at home in each of the last two years before bowing out in a second qualifier on the road. In 2007, the Utah side defeated Kansas City 2-1 in overtime at Rice-Eccles Stadium before losing to the archrival Rapids by a similar scoreline at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, while last year's 4-0 opening round drubbing of San Jose was followed by a 2-0 defeat in Columbus. When combining the MLS qualifying games from the last two seasons and its three games in the tournament proper across the 2005-06 seasons, RSL in 3-4-0 all-time in USOC affairs (MLS "Play-In" round results do not count in U.S. Soccer's official tournament records).

Within the U.S. Open Cup framework, teams compete in one of the following four categories: professional outdoor Division I (Major League Soccer), Division II (USL First Division) or Division III (USL Second Division); or Amateur Division (USL Premier Development League & U.S. Adult Soccer Association). The team that advances the furthest from each level except Division I earns a $10,000 cash prize. The runner-up takes home $50,000, while the champion collects $100,000. The winner also will have the team's name engraved on the historic Dewar Challenge Trophy, the oldest trophy in American team sports that is housed in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y.

For more information on the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, please visit www.ussoccer.com.

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